Jean-François Varlet

Jean -François Varlet (* July 14, 1764 in Paris, † October 4, 1837 in Corbeil, Seine- et- Oise ) was a politician during the French Revolution and after the July Revolution of 1830.

Life

1764-1794

Jean -François Varlet was born as the son of wealthy parents. He studied at the Collège d' Harcourt and then worked as a clerk in the postal service. From a young age he dealt with the work of Voltaire, to whom he remained a lifelong in great respect.

Politically, the moderate supporters of the monarchy committed only after the failed flight of Louis XVI. to Varennes of 20-21. June 1791 it was announced. After Varlet lived through the massacre on the Champ de Mars on 17 July 1791, he transformed himself into a rigorous opponent of the monarchy, Lafayette and the Feuillants. He gained great influence in the subsequent period in the Paris section Roi de Sicile (from August 1792 Droits -de- l'Homme ), he could expand after his participation in the demonstration of June 20, 1792 at Paris. Then he tried to approach the Jacobins, but held them to distance because he accused them anti-democratic behavior and dictatorial structures.

Varlet was after the fall of the monarchy August 10, 1792 a member of the electoral college of the department of Paris. He was among the small group of Enragés ( " the Mad "), which belonged to the extreme left and was regarded as their spokesman Jacques Roux. The Enragés demanded one hand the death penalty for speculators and hoarders slide, on the other hand also a compulsory course for the assignats and the setting of maximum prices. After Varlet had written a "program of pure democracy of the people on egalitarian basis ," he moved quickly on to a leading rank of the Parisian popular movement. So the antigirondistische survey of the Paris sans-culottes on 9 and 10 March 1793 which led to destruction in the printing of politicians and publicists Condorcet and Goursas, largely due to the initiative of Varlet and Fournier.

Therefore, Varlet, Hébert and others were arrested by the Girondin " Commission of the Twelve " on May 24, 1793 but was released on 27 May 1793. Then gathered the Revolutionary Central Committee of the 33 sections, the Varlet as Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Nine chose who to June 2, 1793 led the overthrow of the Girondists of 31 May. After the Jacobins had consolidated their rule, they began to fight the Enragés. Varlet was arrested on 18 September 1793. After his release on 14 November 1793, he lived in secret, until he on 27 July 1794 ( 9 Thermidor ) was active after the fall of Robespierre detested by him again politically.

1794-1830

Due to the political defeat of the "left" Thermidorians Varlet was arrested again on September 5, 1794. He gained his freedom only after the amnesty of Directors on 26 October 1795. During the following years, the former postal workers no longer operated, participation in the " Conspiracy of Equals ", which was organized by Babeuf, Buonarroti and Darthe, leaning he from. To survive, he had the family-owned, Meudon sell, from the proceeds of which he acquired a less expensive house in the Yonne department. In 1798 he married Marie Magdalene Mabire, a young affluent and educated woman who brought him a dowry of a thousand books and the expectation of an heir to land in Bray- sur -Seine.

In July 1799 he joined the patriotic left ring club whose program points such as welfare services for the poor, special taxes for the rich, arming of the people or " cleansing" of the authorities he advocated. But already on 13 August 1799, the Board close the Manage club because it feared a new rule of the Jacobins. Although Varlet compared to the new rulers Napoleon Bonaparte positively said that he had in 1800 to move to Meaux, where he lived alternately with his stays in Bray- sur -Seine during the Consulate and the First Empire under (at least until 1813) not strict police surveillance. Also in 1800, his daughter Julie was born Varlet, a second daughter died as a three year old. In 1814, the couple decided to Varlet church wedding, 1815, the only son Vincent was born. Your livelihood could the family Varlet up only by selling their land.

Already on January 5, 1814 published the " Gazette de France" an article Varlet, in which he favorably commented on the generosity of Napoleon I and was against the return of the Bourbons. During the " Hundred Days " of 1815 Varlet wrote the story " The Phoenix, The Owl and the Birds of Prey ," in which he dealt with the current policy. During the Restoration Varlet often changed his residence and lived for several years under a false name. His true identity is only determined by Vidocq, who had supervised him in September 1813.

1830-1837

In July 1830 Varlet traveled from his new home Nantes to Paris, where he still owned a house. He witnessed the July Revolution, which led to the overthrow of the Bourbons under Charles X and the formation of the bourgeois monarchy of Louis Philippe. Varlet hoped that under the new regime an implementation of the policy objectives of 1789 would be possible. After his return took place in September 1830 to Nantes he was arrested, but released a short time later due to the resistance of the mayor again. After the initial 1831 loosened censorship Varlet again began to publish political articles, as well as the second part of his fable " The Phoenix, The Owl and the Birds of Prey " or " Storming of the Bastille in 1789 ." He was a member of a secret society and Republican candidate for the electoral college of Nantes, in which he was elected in 1831 yet. He also advocated for the expansion of the port of Nantes and the maritime free trade.

While the police repeatedly tried to arrest Varlet a rebel and former revolutionary of 1789, supported him the bourgeoisie of Nantes and thus prevented his arrest. In the middle of Nantes there was in 1831 a philanthropic group under the leadership of Doctor Angel Guepin, a liberal- moderate wing, whose spokesman Armand Carrell was and a petty-bourgeois- proletarian group, which was led by Michel Rocher and Varlet, with Varlet and because of his age its activities during the French revolution in the whole citizenry enjoyed high reputation. The old revolutionary wrote several pamphlets in which he called for social reforms and the implementation of human rights for all people. In addition, he trained twice a week on secret meetings, fishermen and sailors. His involvement in the League for Human Rights, a forerunner of the French League for Human Rights of 1898, he was forced to retire in 1834 because this organization increasingly came under police surveillance. Also since 1834 Varlet had to defend himself against allegations of authorities one of the leaders of the unrest and terror of 1793 accounted for in it.

In June 1836 the now impoverished, living on a small pension and the support of his son Varlet moved to Corbeil ( Seine- et- Oise ), whose citizens refused it, as former opponents of the Girondists. However, the ongoing conflict between citizens and the family Varlet no longer escalated, as Jean -François Varlet drowned while fishing on 4 October 1837.